19930718 Future Plan

19930718 Talks and Addresses Lecture By His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī Mahārāja In śrīdhāma māyāpur, India

 

18/JUL/1993

 

 

              https://archives.Jayapatākāswāmī.com/courses/306577/lectures/5016101

                                      His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī Mahārāja

Talks and Addresses Lecture 

In śrīdhāma māyāpur, India

 

The following is a class given by H.H.Jayapatākā swāmī Mahārāja in śrīdhāma māyāpur

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī:

Mādhvācharya, Nimbārka, they all visited that at one time or another. Rāmchandra came here on His way to Daṇḍakāraṇya. After killing Hiraṇyakaśipu Narasiṁhadev came and stayed here. Balaram when he came and visiting all the holy places He stopped here. Lord Jagannātha came from Jagannātha Purī and came, the Jagannātha temple is the place where Lord Jagannātha came here. Many other gurus, they came, not all are recorded. Śiva, Brahmā, the seven ṛṣis they all came. So Lord Nityānanda when he was explaining all these secrets about Navadvīpa dhāma that this is not different from Vṛndāvana because Caitanya Mahāprabhu appears here. At that time He explained how Lord Brahmā came and he was doing tapasya in the center and the whole Navadvīpa is like a lotus and it’s like Brahmā sits in the center of the lotus, so he came and he sat in the center. That’s why the birthplace of Lord Caitanya which is where Lord Brahmā was sitting is known as Antardvīpa, ‘antar’ means center of the lotus. So Navadvīpa is known as nine islands or Navadvīpa because it got one center island and nine other islands. 

 

So that time Lord Nityānanda, He told that in the future that there will be a very wonderful temple which will come up here. In bengali its said, ‘ek adbhut mandir hoyibe prakash, Gaurāṅga nityaseva hoyibe vikash’. That this wonderful temple will come, an adbhut mandir and from here the message of Caitanya Mahāprabhu be spread all over. So we are trying to build that temple in the future, we are designing that to be much bigger than the samādhi. samādhi is very much less than half the size or very small compared to that temple. It won’t be just a temple, it will be a vedic planetarium, the idea we'll show the whole existence, the universe that we know, what’s beyond the universe, the whole material world, the spiritual world, the world in between, then finally the Goloka Vṛndāvana, everything will be shown in the planetarium. So it’s called Temple of the Vedic Planetarium. Rādhā Mādhav and the eight sakhis will go there, also there will be life size Caitanya Mahāprabhu deity and then the deities of the disciplic succession. 

 

So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he had a vision of a very big temple. When Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s house, they’re just opposite to Jalangi river. Just if you go, see to the south there’s big banyan tree, there is a house there. So he lived there and from there he could see birthplace of Lord Caitanya. He saw vision of a very big temple and he saw a city of all devotees. So also doing a, have a plan in the future that we hope this develops like a city with so many devotees coming and staying here to practice the spiritual life. So like that, it’s a brief background of māyāpur. This was birthplace of Lord Caitanya, 100 years ago when Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he came here to find the birthplace. At that time there was no prachin māyāpur, there was no this māyāpur, there was no temple. In Navadvīpa town was there and then here the villagers were here. So that time nobody claimed to know where the birthplace of Lord Caitanya was. They said it’s been lost in the Ganga, Ganga was shifting here and there, so the birthplace is misplaced, we don’t know where it is. 

 

So then he did lot of research, went into the British record, went into different records, the old śāstric record and he got the idea that it must be somewhere here because at that time Caitanya Mahāprabhu when He is doing kīrtana and Chand Kazi would be disturbed by the sound of the kīrtana, he could hear it at night. So Chand Kazi house is a fixed place, the Vāmana pukur market is actually the house of the Chand Kazi. He was the magistrate at the time of the Hussain Shah for the town of Navadvīpa. Also the Balow Hussain, diba or doba that says the house that’s also in Vāmana pukur. He was a 1000 years ago the ruler of Bengal before the Mughal invasion, He was the last hindhu king before the mughals came. So his capital was here only. So when the mughals came he covered it up his house with mud, with dirt, there’s some history like that. So the house is still there, now they excavated, took out the dirt and they gradually they’re showing here’s the rooms and they took some valuable things out and they took to the archeological museum. That we don’t know, they don’t allow anyone to see when they take out the things. So that also showed that the town in those days was on this side of the river. Because where the king is, naturally the town will be all around. 

 

So for various reasons he thought must be somewhere here but he didn’t know the exact location. So there was one place and little high land and he asked the farmer, so what’s, why no one is cultivating? He said, that land is a useless land because only tulasī grows there. Whatever you plant only tulasī comes out, the sacred tree, so we leave it, it’s a hopeless land. So then he got, that time there was a great vaiṣṇava in Navadvīpa, we accepted him as a guru, his name was Siddha Jagannātha dāsaa Bābājī, he had realized Kṛṣṇa he was called siddha because he had achieved his spiritual realization. So that time he was over 110 years old. So he was so old that he was, you see his picture downstairs, very old, he’s just chanting his japa, his body is very old. So he couldn’t walk. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura carried him in a basket on his head and was walked over there and there see that in this area where was the birthplace. When he got to a particular place the Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī, 110, he’s just can’t even, he’s all arthritis he’s bent, he jumps up and he start weeping Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! He’s just jumping. 

 

This is the place. So from that day we know that that was the exact place of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s birthplace. So then they established one temple there, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura begged door to door one rupee from each person. Since he was a gṛhastha he didn’t want people to give more, so just give me one rupee. Of course those days one rupee was much more than it is today, now one rupee can’t buy anything. But one rupee was not a lot, it was not a little, was just moderate. So he was taking one rupee from everyone and he built one house there, and temple. Then after him, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī  Ṭhākura built the birthplace temple. One of his disciples broke off and he went to Navadvīpa and he established one competition. He said, no, this is real old māyāpur, prachin māyāpur and about 50 years ago or 45 years ago then they claimed that was the birthplace because people were coming here. So then there was a court case when this post office was declared śrī māyāpur meaning it was the holy place. Because in śāstra it says Mahāprabhu was born in māyāpur, so they named it śrī māyāpur dhāma or śrī māyāpur. So they, some people opposed that no, that shouldn’t be called śrī māyāpur.

 

So when Lord Andrewson who that time was viceroy, Lord Andrewson was the viceroy of, representing the viceroy of England in Calcutta. He came up here and he did an investigation which was correct or not. So he also found that since this is very close to the Chand Khazi’s birthplace according to whatever, house rather, according to whatever evidence was available there was no reason to think that this wasn’t the birthplace. But this was māyāpur before, the muslims they start calling as Miyapur. So people start calling this Miyapur, but actually since so long it’s been known as māyāpur. So that Lord he also accepted, okay this is alright to be called śrī māyāpur. So still in Navadvīpa some people they’re claiming that’s the birthplace. In any case all this is within the nine islands of Navadvīpa. But according to our understanding and research and gifts of our previous ācāryas that this is the original birthplace of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

 

So we are trying to develop one spiritual city here and every year devotees come from all over the world. We take them on a walking parikrama for seven days on all the nice islands.

(aside:) You are also welcome to come on the parikrama if you like, everyone is welcome. 

Of course for seven days we are building tents and providing food and everything. It’s about, I think 900 rupees or 1000 rupees or something. Because each place we built all tents and toilets and everything so there’s a big expense, cause lot. In the future we want to have fixed places at all the places. This is also the world headquarters of ISKCON. But ISKCON is actually decentralized in the sense that every branch is financially autonomous, man power autonomous, only spiritually they’re linked up. And we have a one meeting once a year here where we make the rules for the whole year. Then all the leaders they go around the world preaching. So officially this is the registered office, this is the world headquarter. But it’s not that type of world headquarter that day to day, you know we’re managing. But one secretary is here who receives a mail and sends out all the information and here the meetings are held. And this is the spiritual headquarters where people come to get the spiritual rejuvenation and they come here and gather here for any major meetings. So because we are trying to do more than just having a temple, we’re building a planetarium, we want to have museums and we want to have different kinds of exhibits. We’re having also a school, universities planned to give, not only to give post graduate degrees especially in the vaiṣṇava related teachings as something unique. We also like to give because give up for lot of pilgrims coming here. So we have different activities, some people are learning computer, we have a printing press here.

 

(aside:) You saw the printing press, the BBT?

 

We have a publishing unit, you can see where we have outset press and computer typesetting. The we also have, of course our gurukul which is like going up to the secondary level. Then we’re planning now the university as I mentioned. We hope to have that started by two or three years from now. Then we give out the free food every Friday and Saturday to all the people at once. Prabhupāda said that ‘wherever Kṛṣṇa present, He is the father of everyone, so nobody should go hungry’. Like if the father is there, if the son comes naturally the father would feed the son. So we have free food, this two days a week and rest of the week we give subsidised food, Sulabh Bhojanālay 

 

(aside:) Was it five rupees or six rupees?

 

Five rupees, with a six rupees cost we are giving for five rupees. All full plate, two subzis and rice, dal everything. And the free feeding that’s more simple. So then there’s also lot of construction planning, we have many architects from all over the world from Poland, from Europe, from South America. In mahe a little exhibition in the expo but that’s already about four five years old now so we want to change it and computerize it. But so far we have, we’re just discussing how to do that. We have some devotees working on multimedia on the computer to make some multimedia presentation. So we have artist here who are painting, doing sculpture, we’re using that in the samādhi. Then we have horticulturist, one very successful horticulturist from America and Canada. He has come here, he’s going to do our, he wants to bring in all the major plants from all over the world, whatever in India and then whatever to bring. So here in māyāpur all the plants of the world you can find here, whatever can grow here. 

 

So like that we are trying to gradually develop these things. We want to have ecological place so we’re designing in such a way that agriculture in the future will be totally organic. All the natural, all the city will be ecological, recycling everything. Some people come from around the world, they can see that’s although we’re trying to maintain the ancient system, we’re also on the cutting edge of technology or the, which basically is not difficult because they do this technology goes back when you talk about ecology goes back basically to the same things that the ṛṣis have spoken, they were automatically ecologically balanced. So it’s that part is very difficult but in terms of like sewage recycling and all that we have to use because the cities were different and, don’t know exactly how the city is ran in olden times but nowadays we had to have a sewage system and all that. So we’re trying to design in such a way that it will not create any kind of contamination to the natural situation.

 

So like this there’s so many different classes you may see in the temple in the kīrtana and so many devotees come and they listen to the class. But then during the day some are giving, teaching in the schools, some are working in the computer in the BBT, some are running the printing press, some are in the guest house, some are discussing with the people, some are working in the planning department, some are in the construction. Like that there’s about 35 different departments - food, preaching, book distribution. So this is one of the unique projects that we can engage people with almost any background. And if we get someone who has a background we haven’t started before give me, we’ll also start a new department. Because we have so many plans we’re not able to start yet, little lack of certain manpower. So anyway that’s little bit of an idea about māyāpur.

 

(aside:) If you have any question I can try to answer. Everyone knows english?

(devotee:) (inaudible 18:15)

His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī:

In the Gurukul we got three different syllabus. One is the totally brāhmaṇical, that’s like a toll system. We’re not worried about recognition, they may also consider recognising some part of the ordinary school if they come up to their standard, that’s their point of view, they don’t want to come down to that. But then the general system they’re following more or less that syllabus, they’re giving academic and everything and that is connected. And in the end you can sit for the matriculation. But then there is a, third is the vocational where those who are not so much into the studies after they get the basic study then they go on to a big, get more into vocational training. So the three lines are there, one is the purely sanskrit oriented, one is more contemporary and one is the vocational. You know, most of the parents wanted, lot of parents wanted general one, but some parents they also appreciate. The more important is the building up the character, if the person has inclination then he can maybe the brāhmaṇical, they also science but they all study it from more vedic perspective. Like they do astronomy for they use mathematics, for that you have vedic mathematics course, so it’s interesting also. Some people they like to study both, they go to general classes plus some of the vedic classes.

 

Then I see we’ve announced this morning they’re starting here for all the members of the āśram, they’re starting a Bhakti śāstri course. From three to four they’ll be training the boys in this room so that after one year they can sit for exam and get a Bhakti śāstri. Also for people don’t live in the āśram they can also have a training center in Calcutta give some courses. If anybody is interested in sitting for the Bhakti śāstri exam over a year or two, they can probably complete the course. There’s four degree levels: first level is Bhakti śāstri, then Bhakti Vaibhav, Bhakti Vedānta and then Bhakti Sārvabhauma. So these degrees then you can become qualified also to present Kṛṣṇa consciousness to different institutions. One of our ācāryas in America he’s got a permission to go for two years to Harwad to get a Phd, he already has his masters degree because he wants to come here and in māyāpur and in America wants to setup two, one university here, one college in America. So that the students from here can also go to America to our college there. His idea is right now in the whole world every major university has got some professor or lecturer some department of Indology or department of hinduism, you know indology studies which will cover everything in Indian continent or there may hinduism which they may Jain, few things.

 

So what happened is that all the professors are generally speaking, they are not Indian, they’re western and they don’t believe, they’re not also, normally they don’t come from this tradition, maybe they’re christian or something else. So they don’t really have that much of deep idea about what is the philosophy, but they study it in an academic sense. You know, they'll know that from this year to that year there was this sādhu, there was this saint and there was this guru and then they know all the history, they’ll know this philosophy, that philosophy, they’ll, okay this is Shankara, he thought advaitavad and he thought, and Rāmānuja he thought visishta advaita, they know all this they're scholars. But they don’t believe in any of this, they just know it like a fact, so they teach it like that. If you ask what you believe? They say I don’t believe any of this, I’m just telling you what was there. So that way, this was the way what’s before in islamic studies. In the west every school has also department of islamic study. But all the teachers of islamic study were also the Christians previously, so they always give a bad idea to what about islam is. So now the universities in islamic countries they start producing Phds in islamic studies. So they’re getting them jobs in all the major universities around the world. So now mostly the, you know muslims now have the chair of islamic studies and they’re giving the teachings. So now people have little more balanced idea about islam from them.

 

But so far in hindhu studies very few chairs are owned by hindu and especially not by vaiṣṇava at all. So the idea is that we influstrate into all the major universities of the world and get the seats. So we may have the degree course here, we wanna produce people who are interested in becoming the professors for Yale, Haward, Oxford all the universities around the world. They’ll get a job there and they’ll be the professors. So we’ll be one of the few universities specifically giving such a degree. So naturally there will be a great demand for them and we can pick, gradually all the students, one of the courses they take as a course on now compared to religion in the west. But what they hear about hinduism or about Indology, the religion of India is usually distorted. That’s why they see these movies like Indiana Jones and they show you know some horrible dark stene and you know ripping the heart out of people and things. So people have an idea that something from India means it’s very barbaric, they don’t know really what it is. They took a recent poll in America 16% of the people have a good idea about hinduism, 16% have a good idea about islam. They don’t know, and it’s not their fault because that’s only what they’ve been taught. So we have our long range program also to establish university, create doctors and master degree, they’d be giving lectures of all universities in the world to be able to present things in the right sense. So like that we have a lot of long range programs that we are trying to, we are planning forward gradually giving up for. So some people might want to get into some of those programs in the future.

 

(aside:) How many of you are students still? Like even the parents won’t mind if you become a professor in Harvard, I don’t think anyone will mind. $ 1,00,000 a year salary or $ 50,000 a year, nobody will mind you know. So in that sense (laughing) we won’t mind if we can have devotees in all the major universities, they get good salary of course it is alright. But they should just give the proper teaching to the children, to the students who are going there. Any other question?

 

(devotee:) (inaudible 25:48)

His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī:

To build an airport in māyāpur! Well! We are planning to have boats come from Calcutta to māyāpur. We’re planning to have dark, we’re looking into some high speed jet boats which could reach in less than three hours from Calcutta to māyāpur by river. As far as the airplane, that’s been talked about for a very long time. The problem here is shortage of land. One idea is the easiest way would be to have amphibious plane which lands in the Ganges, this is the nearest airport. But someone said that while landing it shouldn't hit any dead body or anything, shouldn’t hit any logs or something. So we’d have to have a system of fencing all something one area so that nothing would go there when landing. Otherwise they say there’s problem in the river because things are floating, if you hit it the impact with that speed it’s very bad. Otherwise we’re definitely going to have a helipad here and just near here in Dhubulia was second world war landing strips for the alice. In British and India that time they were fighting for the alice, then here was the landing strip, from here they can go off to east, to Manipur and then to Japan and that front. So they have gigantic airstrips going about three four kilometers long for those B53 bombers, whether B53 or B54 I don’t remember, anyway 52. So that we’re already discussing with the civil Aviation authorities to convert one of those airstrips as the landing strip because already it’s there, it’s so solid made for those bombers. So light aircraft landing it’s not a problem.

 

(aside:) So, any of you are interested in aviation? Anyone taking flying lessons or? We’re also thinking about having blimp service from Calcutta to māyāpur. Then we can land them right here. You know dirigible, blimp? It’s a helium balloon taking; they’re using that now in England. They go about 80 to 90 kilometers an hour, so from Calcutta to māyāpur one hour. Very quiet, they look  very beautiful going over. Ah!

 

(devotees:) (inaudible 28:26)

His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī:

(aside:) That’s not a sport, it will be a commercial thing, license everything. Ofcourse all the young people can go, they won’t be afraid of.

What is ātmā? I couldn’t hear! And 

(devotee:) (inaudible 28:55)

His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī:

Just the ātmā! Actually ātmā is the living force in the body. We are the ātmā actually; we are the living force in the body. Now that’s known as soul in english or spirit, spirit soul, jiva.Bhagavad-gītā explains that ātmā is situated in the heart and the ātmā is giving the energy through the heart and it spreads the consciousness throughout the body through the blood streams. So actually body is a machine, Gītā says ‘yantrārūḍhāni māyāyā’ this is a machine made out of the material nature. And the ātmā is actually what is seeing everything. ātmā is just a small particle, but there is a, just like now in a computer that CPU is just a small chip may have the computer but everything is depending on that small chip the CPU, central processing unit. So Kṛṣṇa is much better designer, He puts everything in the small spark, everything is there. That spark contains all life, all consciousness, there is undevisable, eternal, it’s part of Kṛṣṇa. So that is got unlimited potency but it’s very small. So that’s situated in the heart giving the consciousness to the whole body, so, through the blood. So if we take, for instance if we take a rope we tie it around our arm, we cut off the blood, then it’s what the Gita is saying is correct, it’s the scientific experiment. Then we should loose the feeling in our arm after a while. Once we cut off the blood means the connection between the hand and the heart will be cut, so you’ll lose the sense of feeling because that won’t be able to read.

 

(aside:) So this all happens, everyone wanna try it (laughing) or everyone experienced? You know already tried. If we sit in the wrong way your leg also falls asleep like cutting off the circulation.

 

So this is a very practical thing, it is like the sun is situated in the middle of the universe and giving the light throughout the whole solar system. That ātmā is in the heart giving the consciousness throughout the whole body. So we are that dynamic living force, we are that soul. So we are operating like in a submarine they have telescope, radar, sonar so many things. So inside the submarine they can’t see anything. And they don’t look like outside the window what they’ll see, it’s all dark, they see through all the radars, sonars and periscope and everything. So like that we’re in the inside but we’re seeing everything through the senses, through the eyes, ears, sense of touch, smell, hearing. So this way we get all of the information. Now that what is the māyā is that the ātmā is thinking that I’m this machine. Actually the machine is meant to be controlled by the ātmā and used for higher purpose which ātmā should realize itself, then it becomes self realized. That means then ātmā becomes in control of its own destiny fully, becomes in control of its own situation. Then its, by realizing the self we also realize the origin of the self which is Kṛṣṇa.

 

Now when we don’t, when the ātmā is not engaged in self realization then the ātmā gets graded along and the body actually is taking control. The ātmā is thinking I am the body, if the body suffers the ātmā thinks I am suffering. If the body is happy then the ātmā thinks I’m happy due to the false identification. It’s called ahankāra or false ego. So there’s a false ego and the real ego. Real ego is when the ātmā realizes it’s own self that he is eternal beyond the body. Even the body dies ‘na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre’, ātmā never dies, only the body dies. So we identify we think we are the body, so then someone you gonna kill me but actually the ātmā doesn’t die, you kill my body you can’t kill me! ātmā will go on again take another birth. So we go on taking birth until ātmā is self realized, God realized. Then when you have ātmā upalabdhi, realization of the self then you achieve liberation. Then you are freed from the reincarnation. So we want the people to get freed from this bondage that’s why all the effort to educate people in this line. Modern civilization is very conscious about the body, but they’re neglecting the ātmā which is the sorry state.

 

(aside:) Yes!

(devotee:) (inaudible 34:00)

His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī:

In everyone of us Paramātmā is there, but Pratamātmā doesn’t interfere, He is the witness only. He tells us ‘don’t do this’ someone’s has the consciousness inside there is the a voice says you shouldn’t do it, it’s not good. But we ignore it sometimes, we do anyway. So God is telling us ‘don’t do it’. Some people they’ve no consciousness they stop listening so long ago that Kṛṣṇa doesn’t bother tell them anymore, He knows they don't care, they don’t want to hear. But for good people He tells ‘you shouldn’t do it’, He gives some advice. When someone is completely pure then they can directly hear, speak that face to face in the heart. So then they don’t do those forbidden things. So generally each of us are given some free will you got that swatantra icha, what we’ll do or what we can, what we want to do we are able to do that. If somebody decide I want to kill, so maybe so many will say if you kill you will suffer. Even if he thinks himself if I kill him I may get caught, police may kill me, or may get the bad karma, you may think so many things or may not think depending on. But still he does it out of lust, out of anger, out of some misplaced idea. So that free will we’re given, but with that free will we can use it properly or we can misuse it. If we misuse that we have to take the bad karma. If we use properly then we get the good result. 

 

So that independence Kṛṣṇa gives to the human beings because with that independence also comes the possibility to love for Kṛṣṇa, love cannot come unless you give independence. If we’re totally controlled there’s no question of love, love has to be voluntary. So to give the human beings the chance to love Him, He has to also give then the chance to act in a free way. Sometimes Kṛṣṇa intervenes if it’s with another, with a devotees like Prahlād then He stepped in and He said no! You can’t kill My devotee. Generally He doesn’t interfere, because He’s dealing with devotees, if it’s very unjust many people they get saved also. There was some plane accident, plane came down and smashed. Everybody in the plane was killed but the plane opened up and the one attendant thrown out, landed on the feet and walked away, no harm. So there’s also the karma that people get, they do so many bad things and then they get the reaction. But one person he didn’t sit with the rest of the group so he’s separated, alright! I save you know. 

 

(aside:) Always these also joining the classes or? They’re not part of the, you know english? We’re taking any questions if anyone has question and answer.

(devotee:) (inaudible 37:56)

His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī:

We want all the people to practice, we don’t expect everybody to come and stay in the temple and practice. Some people who are of missionary spirit who have got some revolutionary enthusiasm that they want to actually do something to help others. Certain number of people we need to be dedicated into this line. But apart from that we want everyone to practice in their homes. The problem is like say someone is, if everybody in the house is doing it then it’s fairly easy. And in those houses usually they don’t mind also if one son goes and does in the temple. The problem is that in the homes say they’re not into the spiritual life and one person wants to do, they’re always the obstruct in direct and indirect way ‘why you’re doing’. You come once here now this, you can see that Wimbledon tennis match. So you go sit there for few hours watching it they don’t bother. Okay then you do this you know in this way the kind goes you know instead of using it for something more productive they go on pulling in. So it’s that environment sometimes in the house it’s very difficult. Just like if you want to study sometimes it’s very hard in the house. You have to go to the library or you have to go to some quite place, you lock yourself in your room. If you wanna get good mark you have to study, you have to concentrate. But the other people they, they may not have the same pressure, they’re not concerned. 

 

And spiritual life is even more, if the houses practices in the future it may be that people would go and join āśram for say one or two years, get some training. Like in the moment church for two years from 18 to 20 everyone before getting married they have to go for two years for preaching. Then that they can come back then only they’ll be given, allowed to marry. Maybe in the future there will be something like that because we see most of the people be in the homes. That we already organise nāmahaṭṭa and other programs so many are practicing in the home. But home means lot of time gets wasted in maintenance or whether wasted or used up in maintenance. So when someone advanced in home they can appreciate that when in temple you can always be doing Kṛṣṇa’s seva. When house you don’t get that much opportunity, maybe 50% or some percent you can do, not 100% it’s difficult. But we have a scope for both we’re not saying everybody has to come in the temple. People should come only if they’re actually convinced they feel that dedication, visit the āśrams won’t run. Everybody likes to come say māyāpur is such a nice place, nice and clean but how is, it must there somebody managing unless there’s some people who are organising nothing happens. While you go in Howrah station and if it’s clean or dirty it’s because of management or lack of. So all these, anything requires manpower, organization, money and the land. Whether spiritual material anything you do requires them.

 

So āśrams we have here also so many married people. We can’t say that if you join the āśram someone between upto 25 or 30 they should remain brahmacārī, after that if they want they can get married. So many people they remain in the dedicated but both husband and wife they’re doing Kṛṣṇa’s seva as a gṛhastha. So that’s why we call this Mandir. All these other math, Gaudia math different math, math means only sādhus, only sannyāsīs. But in this temple we have sannyāsīs, brahmacārīs we also have gṛhasthas we have all these types. We’re not trying to force anybody to do something which is not natural for them. According to their nature they should do to Kṛṣṇa's seva. So we hope that in the future the parents also be proud, just like they're proud if their son gets a job in America doing software engineering. They think oh! My son is now working in America. Actually they’re working for some Indian corporate company, they're being paid three or four thousand rupees a month. They’re sent overseas on a contract, they’re getting a little allowance and they’re waiting. Then after two years contract they come back, but the parents they're very very proud, yes! My son is going to America.

 

So we hope that parents will also be proud oh! My son has become, he’s taken up the career of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He is the General Manager in māyāpur or he is the president of the temple in Asansol or he is, you know up to now parents have not adopted yet. Because they got so many, few parents, many parents they get confused. One of our Vice President of Bangalore, he was number one student in Indian Institute of Science. So, but he decided after graduation and the President he’s also graduate from IIT in Bombay. So they both they decided that they’ll dedicate to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now they become President and Vice President of Bangalore. So first the mother, she was naturally very upset you know, you should become a accountant, you should become a, you know business something, be a scientist. So what’s better sitting you know doing, if you even do accounting it’s better, do accounting for Kṛṣṇa or just doing? If the service is there in Kṛṣṇa consciousness why not do it directly for Kṛṣṇa? Why go outside? And if you are able to preach to help other people.

 

Like now they’re constructing a 10 crore rupee project with auditoriums. He just flew with me, Vice President, I took him to America and he went and he visited, his third trip to America. He went and he talked to the, he went to disney world, he went to all the places not as a tourist but we want to ask some of the exhibits in our Bangalore project. So they said, yes it will be about $100,000 you do like this and give the brochure you know going it or not going just as you know like begging for some employment. He’s going, now he’s a big corporate manager, but upto 9 in the morning everyone is there chanting their japa, attending the class then rest of the day they’re doing all the Kṛṣṇa’s work. So, I was also a student Brown University, Brown connected with Harward I have a full scholarship, I could have gone and but what I would have got some job in material life. So these are much better career to be a devotee of Kṛṣṇa and to be helping others. Why is that why is that thing I have to just work for someone else, they’re paying me some money I’ll make money for them or maybe I’ll be self employed. And I make money for myself and spend it on sense gratification. So even if someone does that we’re saying okay, you make money but spend, use the money in such a way that you’ll be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Make your house Kṛṣṇa conscious, that's also an option. We’re not expecting everyone would take this option, we’re hoping some people would take it. 

 

If we want to establish that in India that this is a respectable thing. Like in Ireland every family, they want one of the family members should become a catholic priest. That those considered honorable things, you have five children one should become a priest. So that’s why you find like in India many catholic priests they’re from Ireland or Scotland, Scottish they’re not catholics, they’re the english englishunt. But like that was the tradition you know. So, but somehow or other in India everyone that tradition is lost. Before we want to start, why not? If we have five children let one be a preacher, why not? What is the of viable thing. This is honorable, before to be a Brahmāna, to be a preacher it wasn’t that disgraceful thing it is very honorable. And all the Brahmānas they’re also gṛhasthas they were the raj gurus, they were the teachers, they were the professors. Now the profession is there but the character is not there, they lost the character. Just like we want people get trained up, get Phd, work in all the universities but maintain the Brahmānical standards. So this is a very revolutionary outlet, the mother is just thinking whether you’re in the house or whether you’re here. They’re not thinking what is the purpose. If my purpose is serve by being in the house, I’ll be in the house, there is no problem. If my purpose doesn’t serve by being in the house why I’ll stay in the house? If someone gets IAS job will they stay in the house? Hey’ll be transferred to Punjab or Kashmir or to Andhra or wherever he gets IAS posting or IPS. He won’t stay necessarily with the mother in the same house he'll be shifted here and there.

 

So we also have IAS in India, ISKCON Administrative service, IPS ISKCON Preaching Service (laughing). Now there’s very big demand for devotees to go in the west, right now in America from māyāpur there must be at least 50 devotees in America in all the temples. Three devotees in Philadelphia, one devotee in Bank overt head of the preaching department in Berkeley also it is Rādhā Mādhav dāsa, about 4 5 devotees are in San Diego, 3 4 devotees are in Los Angeles, I saw 4 devotees in the New York. Now somehow we scatter so they depend a lot because for pūjās, for preaching to Indian community. The Indian devotees are more adapted for cooking Indian dishes, then for some you know, so those type devotees are going to America, few are going for higher preaching. Our Adirudha was here in charge of life membership department and he was running the store here marvadi by previous birth, he shifted over to Los Angeles and he’s in charge of all the preaching in Los Angeles. So his brother offered business, he could be doing 3 4 crores of rupees business in Patna, they got big shops everything. He went there and said this is horrible; all they I got to sit there and sell saree. You can make lot of money but you have to manage all the time just selling the sarees just to make money. And said now all day he’s selling Kṛṣṇa, selling people that, organising going house to house, getting people to be practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Los Angeles area. So he’s got 5000 people that he’s dealing with, so that way he could be Kṛṣṇa conscious, his wife and children can be Kṛṣṇa conscious, he’s married, he has children, 2 children now. So just a different, we’re earning a different perspective you know. 

 

It's not that they question people get idea if I joining I’d be like a, some kind of a sannyāsī my whole life. That option is there, someone is not attracted to, getting into the family life, they can remain as sannyasi. But very small present, ISKCON has got lakhs of member, we got hundreds of sannyāsīs. But we got 10, 15, may be 50,000 Brahmācharis, but married people we’ve got unlimited. So those people who have their type of tyāga they can remain. The other they can remain Brahmācari because you don’t have to deal with so many family affairs. But not everyone is of that nature, so there’s also scope to get married. We’re trying to show this is spiritual necessity that preaching and doing this type of activity. So before there were Brahmānas, that was the livelihood. You see now you’re Brahmāna what’s your occupation? I’m a CPA or I’m a you know I’m a lecturer, I’m a you know this this man, may be born Brahmāna but the occupation is totally different. But previously there was Brahmāna who was occupation was what? He was Brahmāna. Now who is acting as Brahmāna in society? We are trying to establish you know but who is, because before society was mating the Brahmānas. The kings would give, the people would give dakshina to Brahmānas, now who’s giving?

 

So now we’re organizing, in ISKCON society that we can have certain Brahmānas and they can simply we’ll maintain. If they want more luxury they want more opulence we can’t supply, then they have to work outside and they can serve in their house, we don’t mind. But if they can live little simply then they can also just act as a Brahmāna in the temple. They may be born any caste, any creed. That’s why we sing like in class today that a scorpion can come out from the rice or come out from the mother? So they’re coming out from the rice. So we’re not trying to, we want people you see don’t feel ever any pressure. We’re not trying to get anybody that they should, or naturally feel I have to join in the temple. We want people to be Kṛṣṇa conscious whether in the house or in the temple. We have opportunity in the temple, if people join in the temple preaching for one year, two year for the whole life, we’ll be very happy. If they stay in the house and they practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness we’ll also be very happy, we need both. We need everyone to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. But we need people to be dedicated and be helping to spread this consciousness to others because right now it’s the big need in the world. 

 

(devotee:) (inaudible 53:35)

His Holiness Jayapatākā swāmī:

Ya I’m just giving, nobody comes in like feeling a post. It's like you go in the army you start off is a private you know. Then you get, according to how responsible you are, what nature you have, what attitude you have, naturally then the services are given. We start off in a simple way like when I joined, I cleaned the temple floor. I cut the sabjis in Montreal Canada, I was doing just a simple service. But then because I was very enthusiastic, they kept giving me more service. If someone think why they’ll give me all the service, others are not doing that person won’t get ahead very fast. By ahead I mean ahead in bhakti, we’re not worrying about position, we just want seva. The more we do seva form Kṛṣṇa that goes up in our spiritual bank account. So that more spiritual bank account we get, the closer we get to Kṛṣṇa.

 

[Break]

Transcribed By: Bhagyavati Subhadra Devi dāsai

Transcribed On: 05 Sep, 2020

 

Proof Reading By: Amrita Padma Devi dāsai

On 20/10/2020

Proofread by:Srivani Mataji

Date:01/Dec/2020